April 30, 2013 at
6:59 PM

While this is the first Player of the Week honor this season for both Anthony Ranaudo(pictured) and Garin Cecchini, their weeks were representative of the very strong start each player has had to the 2013 season.

Ranaudo, SoxProspects.com's 13th ranked player, had one start this past week for the Portland Sea Dogs against the Trenton Thunder, a New York Yankees affiliate. He made the most of it throwing six shutout innings, allowing only two hits without a walk and striking out a career best nine batters. After four starts for Portland, Ranaudo has a 0.83 ERA and 26 strikeouts over 21 and 2/3 innings.

Some other highly regarded hitters had very strong weeks, but Cecchini manged to out duel them finishing the week an amazing 11 for 23, with a home run, three triples, two doubles, and a steal. Even further emphasizing how well he was seeing the ball, he manged six walks with only three strikeouts. Cecchini is now the 7th ranked prospect in the SoxProspcets.com rankings and has hit .373/.466/.640 over his first 75 at-bats for the Salem Red Sox.

Honorable mentions, batters:

Xander Bogaerts (POR)

Bryce Brentz (PAW)

Sean Coyle (SAL)

Keury De La Cruz (SAL)

Honorable mentions, pitchers:

Keith Couch (POR)

Jason Garcia (GRE)

Cody Kukuk (GRE)

Henry Owens (SAL)

Photo Credit: Anthony Ranaudo by Kelly O' Connor

Will Woodward is a Staff Writer for SoxProspects.com. Follow him on Twitter @SPWill.